I recently had a headache. Like any reasonable person, I went to the medicine cabinet seeking remedy. After a bit of rummaging around, I ended up with a bottle of generic NSAID (pictured) from which I attempted to discern how many tablets I should take.

To no avail.

I mean, look at the back of this bottle. How am I supposed to tell, at first glance, what the proper dose is? Grab my reading glasses and settle into a comfortable chair for an afternoon of intense reading?

I’d be willing to wager that, nine times out of 10, users of this product are looking for dosage information. Put differently: if you have an allergy to NSAID, you already know not to reach for the NSAID bottle in the first place.

Rather than making it easier for the majority of customers to use its product, this drug manufacturer decided to make it equally difficult for all its customers to use its product.**

In the interest of benefiting all of mankind, I’d like to offer all drug manufacturers a simple way to improve customers’ experience, and overall health and safety.

Step 1: Send the following question to 1,000 of your customers:

When opening a bottle of our product, what information are you most often seeking?

A. Dosage information

B. Information regarding allergies & adverse reacions

C. When not to

D. Something else (please specify): ______

Step 2: Use the results to create a three-tier hierarchy of information. I don’t want bias the results, but my guess is that it will look something like this:

(1) How many pills to take and how often

(2) Allergies and adverse reactions

(3) Other important information

Step 3: Redesign your bottle labels to reflect this hierarchy of information — namely by making the most-sought-after information the easiest to read.

After popping the prescribed two tablets of NSAID, my headache subsided, but I was left with these thoughts as they pertain to product design and customer experience.